Category Archives: Bios

Shane Hurlbut

Director/Cinematographer, Bandito Brothers  

Arriving at Bandito with extensive feature and commercial credits as a cinematographer, Shane Hurlbut, ASC, launched his directing career with webisodes for Terminator Salvation, and work for the US Navy. He followed that up by co-directing a Loctite project with Bandito principal/director Mouse McCoy, via Cramer Krasselt. 

Terry Silberman

Senior VFX Artist, Arsenal FX

It took Terry Silberman nearly 20 years to arrive at Arsenal FX, but he brings with him an impressive list of accomplishments, and spot work that includes projects for Honda Fury (Dailey & Associates), Baby Ruth (Dailey and Associates), K-Swiss (The Gale Group, and Mitsubishi (BBDO/LA), among others. His journey began with an adventure – Adventure Film & Tape, to be exact, where he started as a runner and rose in the ranks, wearing numerous hats as he mastered linear and non-linear editing systems. Prior to joining Arsenal FX, he was on staff at SOLID.

Determined to learn as many aspects of post production as possible, Silberman moved into audio engineering. With the completion of Digi-Design school, he began to design, edit and compose sound effects for many major brand commercials. He continued in sound design until one day four large boxes arrived and were setup in a room called “Flint.” This marked the beginning of a newfound glory, “the feeling of all feelings,” as he describes it, and a true passion that was finally exposed.

Silberman has since dedicated his talents to visual effects and become one with Autodesk platforms. Flint, Flame, Inferno, Smoke, Combustion, Nuke, PC, Mac, Photoshop and even Jaleo were among the platforms embraced by Silberman, who began fielding requests to teach others the inner workings of these systems.

“My greatest joy as an artist is understanding – and, hopefully, anticipating – the needs of the client,” Silberman says. “And, of course, making the impossible possible.”

Paul Fuentes Celebrity Direction

Over the past six months (ok, several years), Moon Media director Paul Fuentes has worked with a number of celebrities from the worlds of Film, TV, Sports, and Music.

Paul Fuentes

Director/Writer, Moon Media

Paul Fuentes has directed hundreds of national commercials for major brands and broadcast networks. A former HBO Creative Director, Paul is recognized for his award-winning live action comedy commercials as well as concept driven film and television design. Paul has directed a wide range of spots for clients including VISA, SONY, AT&T, POST CEREALS, NIKON, CLOROX, KRAFT, MCDONALDS, SPRITE, and MICROSOFT WINDOWS 7.

Paul has written, designed and directed network promotions for HBO, ESPN, LIFETIME, NBC, and CBS as well as writing & directing new media pieces for SHOWTIME, LAWYERS.COM, and WOLTERS-KLUYWER. 

Paul’s work has garnered CLIO Gold and silver recognition as well as awards from the Art Directors Club (NY and LA), Communication Arts awards, International Film and Television Awards, Belding Awards (Best Entertainment for HBO Boxing, a campaign he wrote and directed), and Best of Show and Gold awards from The Broadcast Designers Association and BPME.  A Nikon commercial Paul co-created and directed was voted “Top 5″ Spot of the Year by Adweek. His now classic Cinemax “Movie Clichés” won Best of Show at the Broadcast Designers Association.

Ken Lambert

Director, TWC Films

When Ken was very young, his grandmother gave him a glimpse of his future, saying, “When you grow up you will become an artist, and when you die we’ll be rich!” This vivid memory colored the decision to choose design over sculpture and painting, which had been his passion up until the moment it came to choose a viable career path.

As a designer Ken was recognized early on, and was recruited to work in California. There, he discovered the films of Charles Eames and Stanley Kubrick. “The mind of a designer crafting time and space delivered me into broadcast design, where I found a passion for simplicity and direction,” he says. “My love of filmmaking grew stronger as more opportunities presented themselves, an approach emerged which is a blend of idea, style and performance.”

In short, Ken is a commercial filmmaker who brings together performance, narrative and a strong visual style that is coloured by a heritage in art and design. Ken puts it best: “For ease of use some may want to pigeonhole me in the visual genre and that’s fine, but my intention remains true, which is to bring an engaging mind to everything I do.”

Ken’s spot credits include: Vancouver Winter Olympic Games “Ice”, KFC “Krushers”, and Coke “Happy Mouths”. TWC Films is Ken’s first commercial production roost in the US.

Hans Moland

Director, TWC Films

Hans has a natural gift for finding the true voice of an idea, and making it sing. His ability to transform the essence of a concept into an emotionally resonant vehicle started when he was a Norwegian exchange student at Emerson College in Boston where he studied Film and Theater Direction.

After graduating, Hans began working for New York-based GIRALDI, owned by legendary filmmaker Bob Giraldi and specializing in music videos and commercials for artists as prominent and varied as Michael Jackson and Pat Benatar. Having mastered his technique at GIRALDI, Hans returned to his hometown in Oslo Norway, and opened the doors to his own production house, The Moland Film Company. Within a few years, it quickly became the largest and most successful production house in all of Scandinavia.

Hans rides on a powerful wave of achievement, having earned a host of various commercial honors in numerous festivals and contests including Cannes, Eurobest, Clio, Epica, I.B.F. and Mobius, just to name a few. No stranger to success or risk taking, Hans decided to try his hand in feature film direction and found accomplishment there as well.

A few of the highly popular films that Hans has directed are The Beautiful Country (2004), United We Stand (2002), Zero Kelvin (1995), and The Last Lieutenant (1993). His latest film endeavor, A Somewhat Gentle Man (2010), had its world premiere February 15 at the Berlin Film Festival; the film took home the Audience Award at that fest, underscoring the director’s unique aptitude for provocative storytelling. Peter Cowie, international film historian, has called Hans “the Ridley Scott of Norway,” succinctly illustrating that he is an accomplished, talented master of both visual and narrative architecture.

Jonas Arnby

Director, TWC Films

Jonas Arnby started on the ground floor in the entertainment business, and he’s been rising ever since.  Originally from Denmark, he attended the Danish School of still photography and then moved to London where he studied directing at the London School of Communication. Before becoming a successful commercial director Jonas decided to give something back by teaching directing workshops at the National Danish Film School.

After the London School of Communication, Jonas attended Super 16, a four year film school self-assembled by its students and faculty as an alternative to the National Danish Film School. The school is largely funded by the goodwill of the film industry, yet functions as a stanchion of cutting edge talent, and creativity.

For more than ten years, Jonas has been taking home honors at all the major awards shows and festivals. A short list of his accomplishments includes: Gold at Creative Circle, Mobius, True Awards, EuroBest, ARNOLD, and the UN World road safety film festival. He has also received the prestigious Don Quijote Award for his latest short film.

Jonas has worked all over the world, helming spots for companies and causes such as the Children’s Cancer Fund, Unilever, Coca Cola, and McDonald’s.

While he is clearly an accomplished master of commercial production, he is also dedicated to creating powerful, moving, and sometimes comedic stories as is evident in his short film “The Man Who Was A Shoe – Among Other Things” which won second place for Best European Short Film in Portugal. His creative passion combined with his technical expertise highlights Jonas as a truly talented artist on the move.

Jonas lives a comfortable and sometimes quiet life in Copenhagen with his wife and baby girl.

Commercial Awards:

Gold – Creative Circle Award 2008 / best commercial, “Waiting time” – Peugeot
Gold – Mobius Awards 2008 / viral, “Dynamite surfing” – Quiksilver
Gold – True Awards 2007 / viral, “Dynamite surfing” – Quiksilver
Gold – Eurobest 2007 / viral, “Dynamite Surfing” – Quiksilver
Silver – Cyber Lion 2007 / viral, “Dynamite Surfing” – Quiksilver
Bronze – Clio 2007 / viral, “Dynamite Surfing” – Quiksilver
Gold – Mobius Award 2007, mixed media / Viral, “Pool” – Sprite Zero
Gold – ARNOLD 2004 (audience category) / “Dead man walking”, National Association for Traffic Safety
Gold – UN World road safety film festival – Geneva 2006 / best film, “Dead man walking”

Mark Thomas

Managing Director/Executive Producer, TWC Films

Mark Thomas is one of the most sought after Executive Producers in the commercial production industry, a professional who has earned the trust of the country’s leading advertising agencies and one who has helped shaped the careers some of the top directors in the business.

Born in Southern California, Thomas began his career right out of school with a commercial production company. He started out in production but after a few years gravitated toward being an Executive Producer with a bent for branding. That company became Production Partners, and Thomas led both the production and sales effort that made it one of the top commercial producers in the U.S. He went onto enjoy even greater success with two other top production companies, Sunlight Pictures and Stiefel & Company (now part of @radical.media).

Along the way, Thomas has won virtually every award in advertising (well over thirty to date), including a Lion at Cannes, multiple Clio’s, AICP/MOMA, Addy’s, Monitor’s, Hugo’s, Telly’s, etc. Directors he has handled have been DGA award nominees multiple times during their tenure with him.

Beginning in October 2003, Thomas started a new chapter in his career. Partnered with well-respected feature film producer Ralph Winter (“X-Men 1,2 & 3″; Tim Burton’s “Planet of the Apes”; both “Fantastic Four” pictures; the Hugh Jackman picture “Wolverine”) and director Phil Cooke, they formed the company TWC Films, Inc. Thomas will continue handling an in-demand cadre of commercials directors, and the company is garnering attention with such high visibility projects as the Super Bowl campaign for Career Builders and the much lauded Chevrolet “Volt” spot that debuted in the Olympics. The company is also leading the way into new areas.

“It’s a paradigm shift in the model,” says Thomas. “For years commercial production companies did just that and nothing else. Now a creative film company can be a force in multiple genres, if desired. We’ve decided that we can be focused in multiple forms of content creation, and deliver significant opportunities for our talent, be it a traditional commercial, a longer form piece for the web, or even a feature.”

Recognized not only as serious developer of directorial talent and a branding strategist, Thomas is also sought after as an industry voice and is frequently quoted in the press. He continues to contribute articles to leading trade journals. “I love working in the advertising and film industry,” says Thomas. “There is always new talent, new people, the visual aesthetic continues to change, and the creative bar is always ascending. Every day is a positive challenge.”

Trevor Cornish

Director, TWC Films

Sometimes the best humor originates up North. The same can be said for directors.  Canadian-born Trevor Cornish has been directing spots for little more than five years. But in that span he’s directed an impressive group of outrageously funny spots, attracting considerable attention from the US ad industry. As TWC Films Partner/Managing Director Mark Thomas notes, “Trevor’s work has a lot of personality.”

TWC Films took notice of Trevor’s work a few years ago on the strength of his One Show Gold Award-winning spot titled “Vending Machine.” The spot reflects Trevor’s offbeat sense of humor: When a woman’s vending machine selection fails to fall into the collection bin, an office worker vociferously encourages the colleague to attack the machine unitl it coughs up the candy. The spot’s intent is to prove that “cheering works,” followed by a clip of a BC Lions football game accompanied by the roar of delirious fans.

This comical sense of the absurd continues in Trevor’s memorable spot for the Toronto Jewish Film Festival. In the spot titled “Outed,” a concerned mom finds menorahs, Barbra Streisand cds and other Jewish paraphernalia, before finding her son literally in the closet in full Hebrew garb. The tag encourages movie patrons to “discover your inner Jew” at the upcoming Film Festival.

“Biathlon,” for a French sports channel, features an over-the-top Swedish biathlete who cuts down the competition by skiing, then turning and shooting not at the target, but at his nearest competitor. The German athlete eventually wins the event by taking out a bazooka to “narrow down” the competition.

Trevor began his career as a music video producer, then spent four years on the agency side, as a producer for Bryant, Fulton & Shee, Vancouver. His first foray into spots came via a pair of “trailers” for the Vancouver International Film Festival. It’s been smooth skiing for Trevor ever since.

Brian Baderman

Director, TWC Films

Known for his character driven humor, Brian Baderman’s recent exploits include spots for Virgin Holidays via Kitcatt Nohr, London, and French automobile maker Citroen out of Euro RSCG, London. The latter project skews to the darkly offbeat as a man attempts to commit suicide through carbon monoxide poisoning but his car is a Citroen, which produces 40 percent fewer pollutant emissions and won’t let him get the job done. After trying for hours, the guy opts for another means, namely to drive the car into a tree. However, upon impact, the airbag deploys, saving him. The tagline positions the Citroen as “the car that won’t let you kill yourself.”

Earlier in his career, Brian had affiliations with such shops as bicoastal/international Believe Media and then Los Angeles-based Biscuit Filmworks. With a formal education at London’s Camberwell College of Art as well as  the Royal College of Art, he began his career as a still photographer for European jean maker Diesel. Brian became a successful freelance photographer before making the transition to directing in the 1990s, co-founding London production house All Film.

Brian is represented by Blink in the UK, and TWC Films in the US.